This disclosure relates generally to apparatus for laser cutting of paper. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to conveyor belts used to transport paper articles to and from a laser cutting device.
Paper debris and contamination build up on the laser cutting vacuum transport belt. The laser heats up the debris on following passes which in turn bakes the debris onto the transport belt, the baked-on debris absorbing extra energy, warping the belt, burning through the belt, and causing the belt to fail prematurely.
A conventional approach to solving this problem is to clean the belt periodically by hand or with a mechanical activated scraper blade while the machine is running. However, the debris builds up between cleansing, the belt warps, becomes tacky, and documents become difficult to remove.
If scraped: 1) debris builds up on the scraping edge of the blade, reducing the effectiveness of the blade; 2) the blade scratches the belt, making it more difficult to remove the contamination; and 3) the blade cannot access the warped areas of the transport belt. If hand cleaned, both the cleaning solution and debris get pulled through the vacuum holes and migrate to the underside of the belt, which in turn can cause drive problems and more belt failures.